137 Chess Players from Wisconsin participated in the United States Chess Federation chess tournament in May of 2017.Super Nationals VI had 5,578 participants from over 49 States.This 7-round tournament took place over 3 days on Mother’s Day weekend.Wisconsin participants earned over 31 trophies in over 23 divisions.Notable trophy winners were Rishav Bhattacharyya 2nd place in K6u1400 out of 165 players, Jayanth Balu 6th place out of 521 players in the K5u900 division, Mansha Ghai 19th place in the K9u1250 division out of 208 players and Hersh Singh 16th place out of 200 players in K5 open division.See the Wisconsin Player Summary here and the complete tournament results here.

]]>http://www.wisconsinscholasticchess.org/wisconsin-players-win-trophies-at-supernationals-vi/feed/0Scholarship Tournamentshttp://www.wisconsinscholasticchess.org/scholarship-tournaments/
http://www.wisconsinscholasticchess.org/scholarship-tournaments/#respondMon, 15 May 2017 19:38:34 +0000http://www.wisconsinscholasticchess.org/?p=2247In 2008, WSCF began awarding scholarships to winners of some of our chess tournaments.The scholarships are given when the student graduates from high school and enrolls in a postsecondary institution.The funds are sent to the college and deposited into the student’s account.

To date, $21,950 has been awarded to 72 students.$8,000 has been paid out and $1,950 remains unclaimed.The scholarships must be claimed within two years of their high school graduation and, at this time, $750 worth of scholarships have expired. $11,250 remains to be claimed by future graduates.

To support our scholarship fund reserves and to offer new scholarships, WSCF is beginning a series of monthly tournaments.These tournaments will be USCF rated G45, d5, 4 Round Swiss and will award up to $600 at each tournament depending upon number of entries.If the required number of entries is not attained, then 80 % of the revenue will go to the first-place winner in each division.Each tournament will have an Open section for the higher rated players as well as sections for the lower rated players.

Donations to help with past and future scholarships are welcome.If you want to donate to one of our special tournaments (All Girls, Grade levels, Wisconsin Dells) please send us an email to wscf@wisconsinscholasticchess.org and send the funds via a check to our office or via the donate link.

This year’s series of tournaments begins on June 17.For complete details please go to the upcoming events page of our website.

The days of May 11 – 14 found nearly 5800 chess players at the United States Chess Federations Super Nationals VI.Every 4 years the USCFcombines their Elementary, Jr. High and High School National Tournaments into one. This year all convened at Gaylord’s Opryland in Nashville Tennessee.5,578 players from 49 states competed in 31 divisions in seven rounds.After Sunday May 14th over 1325 trophies will have been awarded.

Wisconsin is well represented with 137 players from 47 schools.The highest ranking players representing Wisconsin are Kyle Jain (1976), Hersh Singh(1926), Ritika Pandey(1868), Divyu Pandey(1732) and ShaunakBhattacharyya (1666). Next year (2018) Elementary Nationals will be on May 11 to 13 in Nashville, Jr. High will be April 6 to 8 in Atlanta and High School will be April 27 to 28 in Columbus.

This story appeared on 60 minutes on March 26th 2017. It shows how the game of chess changes students lives in profound ways. These statements in the article captures the essence of what chess in education is about. ” Students see more to themselves than they have seen before” ; “My grades have gone up” ” Chess can take you anywhere” ” Seven of 93 graduates in last years graduating class went on to a 4 year college, every chess player we talked to plans to attend college. ”

]]>http://www.wisconsinscholasticchess.org/chess-education-in-franklin-county-mississippi-60-minutes/feed/012th Annual All Girls Championshipshttp://www.wisconsinscholasticchess.org/12th-annual-all-girls-championships/
http://www.wisconsinscholasticchess.org/12th-annual-all-girls-championships/#respondThu, 23 Mar 2017 17:56:44 +0000http://www.wisconsinscholasticchess.org/?p=1956On February 18,2017 over 50 girls from around Wisconsin gathered at University School in River Hills for the 12th Annual Wisconsin All Girls Championships.21 individual and 9 team trophies were awarded in three divisions. Next year’s tournament will be on Saturday Feb 10th at University School.

]]>http://www.wisconsinscholasticchess.org/12th-annual-all-girls-championships/feed/0Chess In the Parks in the Mediahttp://www.wisconsinscholasticchess.org/chess-in-the-parks-in-the-media/
http://www.wisconsinscholasticchess.org/chess-in-the-parks-in-the-media/#respondThu, 03 Sep 2015 21:10:26 +0000http://www.wisconsinscholasticchess.org/?p=1543The new Chess In The Park program has generated some media. On the first day of the first camp at McGovern Park Fox News was there to get the story:

]]>http://www.wisconsinscholasticchess.org/chess-in-the-parks-in-the-media/feed/0Chess Changes Children’s Liveshttp://www.wisconsinscholasticchess.org/chess-on-screen/
http://www.wisconsinscholasticchess.org/chess-on-screen/#respondWed, 02 Sep 2015 19:03:14 +0000http://www.wisconsinscholasticchess.org/?p=1516In recent years there have been some excellent movies about chess and its positive effects on children. Especially those children growing up in urban environments. Knights of South Bronx is free and can be viewed here. Brooklyn Castle and Life of Kings can be viewed on Netflix and Pawn Sacrifice is coming out in theatres Sept 25. What all four of these films have in common is that they are all based on true stories. The first three movies spotlight how chess profoundly changes the lives of these youth.

Knights of South Bronx – 2005

This is a made for TV movie starring Ted Danson. It tells the story of a former businessman who teaches 4th grade in a New York school and changes the lives of his students. Watch it here for free. Rated PG

Brooklyn Castle – 2012

Brooklyn Castle is a documentary about Brooklyn Middle School IS-318. It follows team members for about a year and shows their struggles to compete and to maintain funding. You can watch the trailer here and watch on Netflix or purchase the video. Rated PG

Life of a King – 2013

Life of King is a true story staring Cuba Gooding Jr. Gooding plays Eugene Brown an exconvict who brings chess to youth in inner city Washington D.C and makes a profound difference in their lives. It can be seen on Netflix and you can watch the trailer here. Rated PG-13.

Pawn Sacrifice- 2015

This movie is about the life of Bobby Fischer and premiers in theatres in September. It shows his life as a chess prodigy and his struggle with mental illness. It stars Tobey Maguire and is rated PG-13.

Beginners (never played in tournaments, does not know / barely knows rules)

Comprehensive Chess Course Vol 1 by Lev Alburt
Styled after the famous Soviet chess school’s methods, this book contains everything a beginner needs to learn, including how all the pieces move and many of the fundamental strategies and tactics. It also comes with tons of puzzles and practice in order to reinforce lessons. Highly recommended.

The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Chess by Patrick Wolff
This is another great choice for absolute beginners. It has really in-depth explanations and advice from the basics to more advanced concepts.

Learn to Play Chess with Fritz and Chesster (Software) by Viva Media
This is a great way to learn chess for younger students or those that may not be inclined to read/work in a workbook. Arcade style mini-games go over how the pieces move as well as more advanced concepts.

Intermediate (knows all rules, may or may not play in tournaments)

Comprehensive Chess Course Vol 2 by Lev Alburt
This expands on Vol 1 and starts to introduce tactics, openings, and other strategies. The two often can be purchased together at a discount.

Chess Tactics for Students by John Bain
This is a great introduction to the tactical themes that so often decide games. It comes in a workbook format that is easy to use and understand. It’s best to purchase this directly from the author at http://www.chessforstudents.com as it can be significantly more expensive on other sites.

Chesskid.com (Website)
This site is a great place for students to play online as it generally pairs them with equally matched opposition while keeping them safe online (The site does not allow students to contact strangers, but they can contact friends they know from school or tournaments with parental permission)

Advanced (knows all rules, plays in tournaments often)

Logical Chess Move by Move by Irving Chernev
This is a great collection of games for an advanced student as it provides commentary after every move. The games are carefully selected for high instructional value and tend to be very relevant to scholastic players. This is considered a classic for a reason!

The Chess Player’s Bible by James Eade
This book provides a great introduction to many different advanced chess concepts.It’s great for visual learners because all pages have multiple diagrams.

Chesstempo.com (Website)
This website has tons of tactical exercises for all levels. The nice thing about it is that it tracks your performance and gives you different problems based on how proficient you are. For best results, create an account, go into preferences and change Tactics Problem Set to “Standard” and Difficulty to “Easy.”

Winners . . . that applies to the all the kids who participated in Saturday’s chess tournament at Siloah Lutheran School. The top two teams were Evangel Chess Club (Coach Lee) and the Banner Bishops (Coach Jackson). Jackson noted that he was very proud of his team and their accomplishments and said usually 8 to 10 of his 27 member chess team participate in tournaments.

Lee stated that his team has been around for “the last 7 or 8 years” and was equally enthusiastic about his team’s performance.

Second place single player, 8-year-old Tayshawn Smith was very excited to receive another medal and noted that he has “lots of medals and trophies” in his room. Principal Phil Leyrer sat down to tell me that chess has made some major changes in Tayshawn’s behavior. Tayshawn’s grandmother has shared with Leyrer “that school was calling me everyday” prior to Tayshawn’s starting chess last year. She attributes chess to making him more focused, calmer, and able to concentrate much more than before he stated learning the game. Tayshawn was wearing a t-shirt on this day that read, “Whatever it is, I didn’t do it” and Leyrer joked that before chess that saying did apply to Tayshawn.

You can only be impressed to see about a hundred children (from grade school through high school) start each match with a handshake, quietly concentrate on their next move (when was the last time you heard a hundred kids being nearly silent?), raise their hands and patiently wait for a coach to answer questions and then silently leave the competition hall when their game was over.

It is obvious that chess teaches more than just a game of skill, but also the manners and concentration required to be a true winner.

]]>http://www.wisconsinscholasticchess.org/siloah-winners/feed/1My Last Few Days at the World Youth Chess Championshiphttp://www.wisconsinscholasticchess.org/my-last-few-days-at-the-world-youth-chess-championship/
http://www.wisconsinscholasticchess.org/my-last-few-days-at-the-world-youth-chess-championship/#commentsThu, 02 Oct 2014 12:49:15 +0000http://www.wisconsinscholasticchess.org/?p=1119The 5th and last update from Ritika on her participation in the 2014 World Youth Chess Championship:

By Ritika Pandey

Day 11 – Today I played a girl from Germany. She played the Queen’s Gambit, so she obtained a very slightly better position. She outplayed me in a long 4 hours, and eventually I lost.

Day 12 – My opponent was from Chinese Taipei (Taiwan). She played in the 41st Olympiad for her country. I outplayed her in the transposition from the middle game and end game. After a tedious 4 hours, I won the game.

Day 13 – In my final round I played a girl from India. She had a slightly better position in the middle game, but after we exchanged queens, I had a better position. But after the rooks were exchanged, it was a drawn pawn endgame. After the final round I went with my friends to the beach, after creating a failed sand castle, we washed off and rented karts. Karts are bikes with a steering wheel instead of a handle, and a hand brake like a car, instead of small brakes by the handles. All of us got our own karts, and we drove around beach. After an hour, my family and I got ready to go to the Closing Ceremony. After reaching the ICC, I spotted the US team sitting on the other side of the auditorium. My friend and I moved there and found a bunch of my friends clumped together. We chatted for a bit, until the speeches started. The most memorable quote to me was,”You came here as ambassadors for your country. Now you are going back as ambassadors of South Africa.” After that the prizes of the Durban Open, a tournament going on alongside the World Youth, were being handed out. My sister played and won second place Under 16. She won 2000 rands (about $200), and I was proud of her. In my section, a girl from the United States, Jennifer Yu, won the gold medal in the Girls U12 in the World Youth Chess Championships 2014.

The World Youth Chess Championships was a great experience. After all, during these couple weeks, the world became smaller for me. Not only have I made friends from all over the world, I also learned about the Zulu and wildlife of South Africa. After this, I am going to Cape Town. We will see Rubben Island, where Nelson Mandela was imprisoned, African penguins, and Tabletop Mountain. I did fine for my first World Youth and I hope to go next year!